Tbilisi City Court sentenced Megis Kardava, a jailed former senior Defense Ministry official and one of the most controversial figures under the United National Movement government already been convicted in several high-profile criminal cases, to 11 years in prison over alleged misappropriation and embezzlement of GEL 768,107 in state funds. The sentence was subsequently reduced to five years and six months under the 2012 Georgian Amnesty Law, the Prosecutor’s Office said on September 22.
Kardava had been wanted by the Georgian authorities since 2013 on multiple charges in eleven criminal cases. He was detained in Ukraine in 2017 and extradited from Kyiv in 2021. He has previously been found guilty in cases concerning the Navtlugi special operation, the 2006 prison riot, the torture and sexual abuse videos case, as well as organizing the torture and sexual abuse of retired colonel Sergo Tetradze, for which Kardava was sentenced to nine years in prison in absentia.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the latest case concerns the alleged misappropriation and embezzlement of GEL 768,107 between November 16, 2011, and August 2012, with the funds allegedly taken under the guise of operational expenses with the assistance of other senior Defense Ministry officials.
The agency said that on May 22, 2012, Kardava, then head of the Military Police Department, submitted a written request to then-Defense Minister Bacho Akhalaia “under the article on covert expenses,” requesting GEL 330,000 for the department.
“With the minister’s consent, the funds transferred to the Military Police Department’s account were withdrawn from one of the banks on Megis Kardava’s instructions and converted, after which Megis Kardava illegally appropriated 200,000 US dollars,” the prosecutor’s office said.
According to the agency, fictitious documents were subsequently prepared on Kardava’s orders to conceal the misappropriation and embezzlement, “purporting to show that funds had been spent by a unit of the Military Police Department deployed to the Republic of Afghanistan for operational-search activities.” This allowed the funds in question “to be written off and the accounting records to be reconciled accordingly.”
The latest case is not Kardava’s first conviction for embezzlement. In September 2023, he was found guilty of embezzling GEL 60,000 belonging to the Defense Ministry and sentenced to eight years in prison. The sentence was subsequently reduced to four years under the Georgian Amnesty Law, along with a six-month ban on holding public office or employment.
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